City Hall Beat Was Also Fun In ‘The Old Days’

In “the old days” - the 1940s and ‘50s - I was a member of the Spokane Chronicle staff. Covering city hall in Spokane was a fun deal then, and Doug Clark’s Dec. 17 column about our present City Council rekindled some memories.

Back then, the five-person council consisted of commissioners in departments of finance, public works, public safety, etc. Arthur Meehan, the mayor, was a politician from the old school and he ruled this body with a firm, admonishing hand. When this cigar-chomping official wasn’t in his office, he didn’t jump out the window but he always could be found at the gun club, shooting skeet.

If the group had an odd member, it had to be Ken Lawson (reminds me somewhat of Joel Crosby). Backed by the church groups, Lawson was a naive, conservative type who wasn’t too adept at the world of political government. One of our Chronicle staffers helped him with his campaigns and guided him in fielding questions from the media - only newspapers then.

Many was the time our managing editor would call the City Hall reporter to get some information from Lawson. The reporter advised his boss to turn around and ask Harve because Lawson would be calling him on how to answer anyway.

We had an interesting public safety department, too. An assistant police chief was the bagman, for himself and the commissioner’s wife. He visited local pinball, punchboard and, for a period, slot machine operators to present them with his and the lady’s gift list, usually liquor. To my knowledge the police commissioner, a kindly guy who was formerly a fire chief, was never aware of this arrangement.

Willard “Duke” Taft, the youngest member of the council during the Depression days before World War II, was best known for soliciting business folk to find jobs for youth of the city. I can personally confirm that he always succeeded.

Probably the most colorful player in government then was the city police judge, a European immigrant with a strong Christian belief. He was famous for ordering a castor oil treatment for those drinkers who continued to appear before him. He was known to find a person “half guilty” and reduce the sentence. We always looked forward to his “I find you not guilty, but don’t do it again!”

One day we were shooting the breeze with the judge in his chambers, discussing the rash of jumpers off the Monroe Street Bridge that summer. One reporter - Lawson’s mouthpiece and a real prankster - suggested to his honor that we needed to fix a springboard to the bridge with a movie camera on the rail, to record the jump. As the person hit the water’s surface, a conveyor belt would carry them right into Smith Funeral Home.

“Geez, Harve, that’s sacrilege!” exclaimed his honor.

It was a fun period, but, as Clark summarizes, they all got the job done.

xxxx